China’s DeepSeek shows US chip controls have failed as AI race ramps up: HKU scholars

Geopolitical experts say the Chinese start-up could challenge American supremacy in AGI, the futuristic AI that could rival human cognition

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DeepSeek’s rise has stunned Silicon Valley and intensified the tech rivalry between the US and China. Photo: Reuters

Published: 7:02pm, 11 Feb 2025Updated: 8:21pm, 11 Feb 2025

Geopolitical experts said the rapid rise of Chinese start-up DeepSeek could challenge American supremacy in artificial general intelligence (AGI) and proved the ineffectiveness of US export controls on semiconductors.

They made the comments on Friday at an event co-hosted by the University of Hong Kong’s AI and Humanity Lab and the Hong Kong Ethics Lab to discuss the geopolitical implications of DeepSeek.

Silicon Valley tech companies have advocated stricter chip restrictions on China, arguing that US dominance in the semiconductor sector would secure its long-term supremacy in AGI – a type of artificial intelligence scientists believe could be achieved in the next few years that would possess cognitive abilities similar to those of humans.

This AI would be able to learn, reason, solve problems and adapt to new situations across a wide range of tasks.

Herman Cappelen, chair professor of philosophy at the University of Hong Kong, said AGI dominance would translate directly to global power.

“You will have super military power with AGI [and] be the leading power in the world for the foreseeable future because of the supremacy,” Cappelen said.